The Blue Guy
by Freyja SilverWillow
Summary: Nadira's Dream Date - from Lucas's point of view.


This has been laying around my hard drive for who knows how long, so I finally figured I'd post it. That way I have a higher chance of finishing it.

Disclaimer: I don't own what I don't own.

* * *

Lucas knelt on the ground, carefully placing flowers on the landscape. Dig, water, plant, fill. He was moving on automatic, having done things like this countless times for people who had hired him and the others out, using this quiet time to think about things. Like where his notebook had gotten off to and why the others couldn't just drop the whole thing about the poem. Planting flowers and mind wandering, Lucas was oblivious to his surroundings; later he might make a note to pay better attention.

As it was, he was completely surprised when a hand gripped his white coveralls and jerked him up, spinning him around. Surprise melted into terror when he found Ransik glowering at him. How had he found him? What was he doing? Ransik had a perfect shot of his back; he could have been dead ten times over- so what? Something weird was going on, and Lucas had a horrible feeling. Lucas struggled to process all of this as Ransik said something about having been looking for him.

"Ransik, what do you want?" he finally managed to ask, trying to keep his expression normal. _Don't panic. I'm sure the others will come running before Ransik grinds me into dust. Wherever they are._

"It's not about what I want, it's about what Nadira wants!" Ransik replied with feeling. "She told me about you and her!"

"What about me and her?" About them fighting? They did that all the time. They were on opposite sides, after all.

Ransik shook Lucas. "Oh don't be coy!" Lucas couldn't help but think this was a disturbing choice of words for his archnemesis. As Lucas was trying to figure out what had knocked his mortal enemy so hard upside the head, Ransik continued snarling in his face. "I know you wrote about her!" Confused, Lucas stared at Ransik. What on Earth was he talking about? Wrote about her? Suddenly, a horrifying thought dawned on him. Surely not. No. Clearly Nadira had simply gone the way of her taste in clothing. He couldn't mean-

All of his thoughts shattered when Ransik started reciting Lucas's poem. There was something about a psychotic villain bent on your destruction shaking you like a dead cat while prattling on about their daughter's mistaken ideas and topping it off with quoting a poem about a racecar that the mind simply didn't want to comprehend. What could he comprehend? Something safe. Something that made sense. He had to tell Ransik something, and fast. Fast like racing. Racing like a car headed for a wall at five hundred miles an hour and both the brakes and steering had failed. "Yeah, I wrote that poem, but it's not abou-"

But Ransik cut him off, deciding to give Lucas advice. Advice on what Nadira liked, what she expected- and what _he_ expected from _Lucas_. Suddenly the Blue Ranger found his arms being filled with long-stemmed roses, perfume that smelled suspiciously like _Fracas_ by Piguet, chocolates, and a diamond necklace Lucas was almost positive was stolen. Come to think of it, it was likely all of it was stolen. This was getting out of hand- no, it had gotten out of hand the moment Ransik had grabbed him. Before that, even. Now it was getting bizarre. Lucas tried to ignore the probably ill-acquired merchandise he was loaded with. "You don't understand-"

"I understand that if you don't treat my daughter like a princess, _you will be sorry_," Ransik interrupted again, waving a pink, scented envelope at him threateningly. He stuffed the card into Lucas's mouth, overpowering Lucas with the smell of perfume. Definitely _Fracas_. Fitting. "You have a date with her. Don't be late!"

With that announcement Ransik released Lucas roughly and walked off, vanishing into the sunlight. Lucas watched him go, feeling distinctly heavy. He couldn't believe his lousy luck. The tickets, the debacle with Contemptra... he had only lost his notebook that morning; how could he have known that in the wrong hands it could spawn such evil?

He never had the intention of showing. But suddenly a vision popped into Lucas's head, one where like today Ransik found him, but instead of trying to foist his eager daughter off onto hapless Blue Rangers, he simply ripped Lucas's arms off. Unsettling to say the least, but after what had just happened, not outside the realm of possibilities. And though he would never, ever, ever admit it to anyone, Lucas was... oddly flattered.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad. Maybe they would give up on this new and unusual strain of battle tactic and leave him alone if he showed up. Could it hurt? Yes, yes it could hurt. It could hurt in ways he never fathomed. However, no matter what he tried, Lucas couldn't see a way around this one. Lucas growled to himself. _Talon-clawed, pink haired, high-maintenance, shrill-voiced, midriff showing little..._ Why was it his fault she jumped to conclusions? Outrageous ones, at that?

Lucas spat the card onto the pile of offerings as the words "sacrificial altar" spun through his head. With any luck, he could get this done and over with before anyone else found out. Strangely, though, Lucas wasn't feeling very lucky.  


* * *

  
For those that don't know, _Fracas_ is a real perfume, launched in 1948 by Robert Piguet. Less than two ounces of the stuff costs roughly $90.


End file.
